Rasbhari, a hindi web series with 8 episodes of average length 30 minute streaming since Jun 2020 on Amazon prime. A failed try of entertainment with story plot of suspense-drama-love-sex-intimacy
Story revolves around two characters. First one, a double role played by Swara Bhaskar as Shanoo bansal (a teacher) and Rasbhari (a prostitute). In both roles are a total new form of Swara Bhaskar but acting is not up to the mark. She was not able to match the level of entertainment and acting to her previous roles. Second lead character Nand Kishore Tyagi played by Ayushmaan Saxena, a student of Shanoo. After hearing news about Rasbhari, he tries to impress her for lovemaking. Along with these two Rashmi Agdekar as Priyanka (Nand’s girlfriend); Pradhuman Singh as Naveen (Shanoo’s Husband) and Neelu Kohli as Pushpa (Nand’s mother) are some other major characters with small small character roles of Nand’s two friends, his father, pappu cablewala, Puspha’s 5-6 friends, Priyanka’s two friends, Paanwala, Shanoo and Naveen’s parents etc. Except Swara everybody else did well in acting. Swara is playing the title role so expectation from her is more. Her tone as Shanoo is a bit irritating. Scenes of Pushpa along with her friends are humorous and gives some moments of fun.
Story based in Meerut city and revolves around Rasbhari, the ghost or multiple personality disorder of Shanoo (depends on you, how you take it). Sometime Shanoo suddenly changes to Rasbhari and gets intimate with the various males of Meerut. This rumour/ truth spread like a fire and all the males from the city get crazy about her. To get the opportunity of love making with Rasbhari, Nand start visiting Shanoo’s home for private tuition. Shanoo’s husband knows everything about her condition and he discuss this in detail with Nand. After knowing the truth about Rasbhari, Nand tries to find the reallity. During this Shanoo teaches him english as well as manners also. So when the opportunity of lovemaking with Rasbhari knocks the door,he ignores it because of the respect for teacher Shanoo and his love for Priyanka. Finally he saves Shanoo from Pushpa and the city women who tries to throw her out of the city. At the end Nand gets an answer about Shanoo and Rasbhari but confuses us more. Maybe intentionally kept some open ends along with a small sweet surprise at the end is a platform for next season.
Director and producer tried to get publicity for a web series by sexual content and controversy (lead role given to a person who is in the news for various reasons) but somehow both ideas failed. Some scenes are irrelevant to the storyline.
Entire web series is a perfect example of achieving the deadline of a product launch. Doesn’t matter how many issues or problems there are in the product (Rasbhari) but you launch the product before the due date and make the management (Amazon) happy, letting the customer suffer.
You can watch it, if you have plenty of time and nothing to watch or do (not even sleep).
Chetan Nikam 